Filed under: Software, Universal Binary
Yahoo Messenger 3.0b1
Apparently, a lot of our readers are Yahoo Messenger users. A good dozen of you or so sent us this tip that Yahoo Messenger 3.0b1 has been released. I've just taken it for a spin and my early impression is that Yahoo seems to have hired some great developers. This is a really nice application with a great Tiger/Leopard iChat-like interface, cross-platform webcam support, integration with other Yahoo services, chat conferencing, and file transfers. The website says that the ability to chat with MSN Messenger/Microsoft Live users will be coming soon as well. Oh, and it's a universal binary.Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Richard said 10:49PM on 6-28-2006
I got this earlier today and I must say, I'm *really* impressed with it. Finally, one of the major IM companies(?) has produced a mac client that is actually good and usable. When the MSN support comes in I'll be ditching the frankly grotesque Adium in favour of this.
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Aaron said 11:20PM on 6-28-2006
It's better than what we had before, still crippled compared to the Windows version... O_o;;
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Steven said 11:26PM on 6-28-2006
I agree here. This is a very nice release. The video quality is better than the previous YM, but the text did have trouble keeping up with me while my cam and my friend's cam was running. Other than that, good stuff.
FINALLY.
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David Chartier said 11:43PM on 6-28-2006
I have to admit: I'm flabbergasted. This release is surprisingly... surprising. It's VERY OS X; no longer that clunky Carbon legacy UI and feel. Very zippy, and the webcam functionality finally works really well. File xfers are 100% drag and drop too.
Awesome work Yahoo. Keep up the Mac OS X love!
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Junior said 1:00AM on 6-29-2006
i've noticed that it doesn't replace the old yahoo app.
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Joshua said 1:06AM on 6-29-2006
Still no support for message logging or Yahoo Chat though, near as I can tell. I would love to see that happen.
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Jessica said 1:40AM on 6-29-2006
This is definitely a step in the better direction, I have started using the yahoo messenger more and more as I have found a few old friends on the 360, and webcams are like $30 now, so we've been having a blast camming with each other, I hope more and more people adapt it, the cam thing is cool and easy to use.
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Bart Eshuis said 2:06AM on 6-29-2006
Does anyone know whether or not this new version supports USB webcams?
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Jon said 2:07AM on 6-29-2006
No tabbed chats :(
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SJC said 2:08AM on 6-29-2006
Looks almost exactly like adium and one of the themes to me.
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vbbr said 4:19AM on 6-29-2006
Does it have voice chat now?
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Kakaze said 4:44AM on 6-29-2006
It's exactly the same as the old one except now we got a better interface and, ZOMG!, avatars! WOOHOO!
I want chatrooms. I could care less about avatars and the interface, just give me the damn chatrooms.
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John Hood said 5:10AM on 6-29-2006
For a first beta, this beats some (if not all) final releases from companies I could mention. Feeling the love Yahoo!
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kunnykun said 8:26AM on 6-29-2006
does it support cross platform webcam already in this beta version?
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DrWho said 8:28AM on 6-29-2006
Grotesque adium? Are you for real?
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Scott H said 12:34PM on 6-29-2006
I'm very relieved to see this. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I'm just thrilled that Yahoo actually has a Mac development team. After all, the 2.5.3 version was from what, 2003? I'll just be happy if File Transfer works again with PC users--anything else is just icing on the cake for this release.
The lack of Mac support from AIM, Google, and Yahoo (which Google has definitely remedied with Google Earth and others, and now Yahoo has) for their native apps was the biggest strike against the Mac when I recommended it to switchers. Switchers don't care about Adium or other 3rd party tools; they want the official client. Plus, the 3rd party tools did not support file transfer or video chat with YIM. The 2.5.3 YIM still did silent video, but file transfer was broken. This release is a great step forward. Just knowing they have Mac developers and finally acknowledged that they need to continue to release Mac versions of their tools is great.
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Matt said 12:43PM on 6-29-2006
Does this version support webcam video *and audio*? In the past, that was one of the shortcomings of the Mac version - I could do "video chats" with other Y!M users, but only video, no audio.
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adm said 12:49PM on 6-29-2006
it doesn't support audio yet...supposedly that's coming in a future beta.
does anyone know how many frames per second is the video (approximately)? Is it real time, or still just one or two frames per second?
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The Jeremy said 2:15PM on 6-29-2006
Does it support "right click" finally? Yahoo Messenger on Mac OS X has done nothing but infuriate me compared to the Windows version.
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Jeff said 2:44PM on 6-29-2006
Use of this new beta keeps signing me out of my Yahoo Mail and Finance pages in Safari. I've had to log in over a dozen times today....
That said, I'm definitely glad to see a new version of Messenger, *finally*!
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